The Lineup

I don’t include a lot of super markety slides in these launch reviews, but this one is worthy of a mention:

Sandy Bridge is launching with no less than 29 different SKUs today. That’s 15 for mobile and 14 for desktop. Jarred posted his full review of the mobile Core i7-2820QM, so check that out if you want the mobile perspective on all of this.

By comparison, this time last year Intel announced 11 mobile Arrandale CPUs and 7 desktop parts. A year prior we got Lynnfield with 3 SKUs and Clarksfield with 3 as well. That Sandy Bridge is Intel’s biggest launch ever goes without saying. It’s also the most confusing. While Core i7 exclusively refers to processors with 4 or more cores (on the desktop at least), Core i5 can mean either 2 or 4 cores. Core i3 is reserved exclusively for dual-core parts.

Intel promised that the marketing would all make sense one day. Here we are, two and a half years later, and the Core i-branding is no clearer. At the risk of upsetting all of Intel Global Marketing, perhaps we should return to just labeling these things with their clock speeds and core counts? After all, it’s what Apple does—and that’s a company that still refuses to put more than one button on its mice. Maybe it’s worth a try.

Check Jarred’s article out for the mobile lineup, but on desktop here’s how it breaks down:

Processor

Core Clock

Cores / Threads

L3 Cache

Max Turbo

Max Overclock Multiplier

TDP

Price

Intel Core i7-2600K

3.4GHz

4 / 8

8MB

3.8GHz

57x

95W

$317

Intel Core i7-2600

3.4GHz

4 / 8

8MB

3.8GHz

42x

95W

$294

Intel Core i5-2500K

3.3GHz

4 / 4

6MB

3.7GHz

57x

95W

$216

Intel Core i5-2500

3.3GHz

4 / 4

6MB

3.7GHz

41x

95W

$205

Intel Core i5-2400

3.1GHz

4 / 4

6MB

3.4GHz

38x

95W

$184

Intel Core i5-2300

2.8GHz

4 / 4

6MB

3.1GHz

34x

95W

$177

Intel Core i3-2120

3.3GHz

2 / 4

3MB

N/A

N/A

65W

$138

Intel Core i3-2100

2.93GHz

2 / 4

3MB

N/A

N/A

65W

$117

Intel is referring to these chips as the 2nd generation Core processor family, despite three generations of processors carrying the Core architecture name before it (Conroe, Nehalem, and Westmere). The second generation is encapsulated in the model numbers for these chips. While all previous generation Core processors have three digit model numbers, Sandy Bridge CPUs have four digit models. The first digit in all cases is a 2, indicating that these are “2nd generation” chips and the remaining three are business as usual. I’d expect that Ivy Bridge will swap out the 2 for a 3 next year.

What you will see more of this time around are letter suffixes following the four digit model number. K means what it did last time: a fully multiplier unlocked part (similar to AMD’s Black Edition). The K-series SKUs are even more important this time around as some Sandy Bridge CPUs will ship fully locked, as in they cannot be overclocked at all (more on this later).

Processor

Core Clock

Cores / Threads

L3 Cache

Max Turbo

TDP

Intel Core i7-2600S

2.8GHz

4 / 8

8MB

3.8GHz

65W

Intel Core i5-2500S

2.7GHz

4 / 4

6MB

3.7GHz

65W

Intel Core i5-2500T

2.3GHz

4 / 4

6MB

3.3GHz

45W

Intel Core i5-2400S

2.5GHz

4 / 4

6MB

3.3GHz

65W

Intel Core i5-2390T

2.7GHz

2 / 4

3MB

3.5GHz

35W

Intel Core i5-2100T

2.5GHz

2 / 4

3MB

N/A

35W

There are also T and S series parts for desktop. These are mostly aimed at OEMs building small form factor or power optimized boxes. The S stands for “performance optimized lifestyle” and the T for “power optimized lifestyle”. In actual terms the Ses are lower clocked 65W parts while the Ts are lower clocked 35W or 45W parts. Intel hasn’t disclosed pricing on either of these lines but expect them to carry noticeable premiums over the standard chips. There’s nothing new about this approach; both AMD and Intel have done it for a little while now, it’s just more prevalent in Sandy Bridge than before.

More Differentiation

In the old days Intel would segment chips based on clock speed and cache size. Then Intel added core count and Hyper Threading to the list. Then hardware accelerated virtualization. With Sandy Bridge the matrix grows even bigger thanks to the on-die GPU.

Processor

Intel HD Graphics

Graphics Max Turbo

Quick Sync

VT-x

VT-d

TXT

AES-NI

Intel Core i7-2600K

3000

1350MHz

Y

Y

N

N

Y

Intel Core i7-2600

2000

1350MHz

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Intel Core i5-2500K

3000

1100MHz

Y

Y

N

N

Y

Intel Core i5-2500

2000

1100MHz

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Intel Core i5-2400

2000

1100MHz

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Intel Core i5-2300

2000

1100MHz

Y

Y

N

N

Y

Intel Core i3-2120

2000

1100MHz

Y

N

N

N

N

Intel Core i3-2100

2000

1100MHz

Y

N

N

N

Y

While almost all SNB parts support VT-x (the poor i3s are left out), only three support VT-d. Intel also uses AES-NI as a reason to force users away from the i3 and towards the i5. I’ll get into the difference in GPUs in a moment.

I think there are many of us that had the same idea. Unless needing to upgrade due to malfunction or new laptop purchase, holding C2D til past the i-Series was the best move to make; whereas buying into C2D asap was the best move at the time.

Still going to wait for prices to fall and more USB3 adoption. Expected new purchase: mid-2011-mid 2012Reply

Ya know I usually do as you are but was an early adopter of the i7 920. Looking now it seems I made the right choice. I have had 2 years of kickassery and my processor still holds up rather well in this article.Reply

Me too! I've got an e8400 running at 3.9 with almost zero OC know-how and its done me well. I might snap up an i7 if they and their mobos get cheap when sandy bridge has been out a few months... but may well skip that generation all together.Reply

Holy crapola AMD really needs Bulldozer now. Even in heavily threaded video encoding the 2600K at $300 is blowing the 1100T x6 out of the water. This is the the Core 2 Duo vs. A64 X2 all over again. Will Bulldozer be another Phenom, a day late and a dollar short? TLB bug anyone? As a PC enthusiast I really want to see competition to keep prices in check. If I had to upgrade today, I can't see how I could turn down the 2600K...Reply

Yeah, new Intel motherboard models are never cheap. I don't understand why the price remains so high when more an more functionality is moving to the CPU. The other killer is that you need a new board for every Intel CPU update.

Lastly, it's hard to throw the "buy now" tag on it with AMD's new architecture over the horizon. Sure, AMD has a tough act to follow, but it's still an unknown that I think is worth waiting for (if it's a dog, you can still buy Intel). Keep in mind that Bulldozer will have a pretty strong IGP, one that may make decent IGP gaming a reality. It will become a matter of how powerful the x86 portion of the Bulldozer is, and they are trying a considerably different approach. Considering the amount of money you'll be paying, you might as well see how AMD shakes out. I guess it just depends on if what you have today can get you by just a little longer.Reply

You're conflating Bulldozer and Llano there. Bulldozer is the new architecture, coming to the desktop as an 8-core throughput monster. Llano is the first desktop APU, cramming 4 32nm K10.5 cores and a Redwood class GPU onto the die. The next generation of desktop APUs will be using Bulldozer cores.Reply